My brother and I have started training for running a half-marathon this Fall. Yesterday was the first morning of exercise. Today, the agony. Soreness, stiffness, and all around aches – and it’s not for a lack of stretching. It’s simply that I’m way out of shape and I need to get myself back up to form.

My brother has been running on a treadmill for a long time now – a few years – so he’s got a bit of a leg up on me, and has to slow down to accommodate my speed. Time for me to set up – I need to get into a regular routine of aerobic exercise and endurance training if this is going to work at all.

So – here’s the plan. 100 days to 10 KM is a decent place to start, but I need to move this a little faster, as 100 days takes us to the half marathon in Raleigh – and 20KM is 13.1 miles, not 10KM. This means I need to do at least 3 miles on the bike every evening as a baseline aerobic training. Ideally stepping that up over time to 10+ miles a day. And, the hard part: getting up even earlier every morning and putting in 30 minutes of jogging/walking, switching to mostly jogging as I go.